


i need that home, i'm coming home

by atlantisairlock



Category: MythBusters RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Denial of Feelings, Drunken Confessions, F/M, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Oblivious, Workplace Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-09-07 20:17:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8814826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atlantisairlock/pseuds/atlantisairlock
Summary: It's Kari's idea to throw Scottie and Christine a joint going-away party.AU where Grant was never added to the show after Scottie left.





	

**Author's Note:**

> homegirl out here discovering mythbusters 9379178 years too late and writing fanfic sadly. 
> 
> title from 'coming home' by sigma ft. rita ora.

It's Kari's idea to throw Scottie and Christine a joint going-away party. It's not all that much of a party because both Adam and Jamie turn down the invitation, so it's just Tory, Kari, Scottie and Christine sitting around in a nice downtown bar and talking. Everything's pretty chill, and the easy flow of alcohol makes the night seem so much softer around the edges. They're there into the wee hours, just laughing and reminiscing, and it's so good that Tory almost forgets that they're saying a goodbye. 

Christine has the alcohol tolerance of a twelve-year-old, so by midnight she's drowsing in the booth. Kari stumbles off to the bathroom for the fifth time and the moment she's gone, Scottie slides closer to Tory and pokes him hard in the ribs. "You gonna finally tell her?"

It takes Tory a few seconds to work past the tipsy haze and squint at Scottie. He stares at her for a long moment marshalling his thoughts, then manages to come up with an intelligent response. "Huh?"

Scottie rolls her eyes and snorts, taking another drink. "Are you drunk  _already?_  Oh, Tory."

"Not all of us have iron livers," he answers, aggrieved, and pokes her back. "Anyway, what're you talking about?"

She gestures in the general direction of the bathroom. "After Chris and I leave, it's just going to be the two of you. Are you going to  _finally_ grow up and tell her you like her?"

Tory's addled brain takes another ten seconds to process Scottie's train of thought, then stares hard at her. "You mean Kari?"

"No, I totally mean Adam. Of _course_ Kari. Or have you not realised - oh my god.  _Tory."_

"I don't - what? She has a _boyfriend!_ And I don't like Kari, not like that," Tory says, only to be met by another disbelieving snort. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that. Come back to me in ten years and we'll see what's happened then."

 

 

Obviously, nothing happens. Because Scottie has no idea what she's talking about. Sure, the dynamic's different after the build team is pared down to two, but that's only to be expected when there's just one other person to bounce ideas and responsibilities off. Out of necessity, they work long hours together, get to know each other's quirks, strengths, weaknesses, whatever. Everything they need to know in order to get builds done on time and have things go smoothly. They click. It's easy to be around each other, and Tory knows that if they'd met in any other situation, he would still be friends with Kari. In any other time, in any other life.

He's not in love with her.

But it's  _easy._

 

 

 

Kari gets married a short while after Scottie and Christine leave. It's a quiet, family-only ceremony, and she comes back to work with a striking silver band around her ring finger. Tory just grins at her when she walks into the shop and it catches the light. "You better be careful not to accidentally weld that to something."

"Guess it's time for you to do all the welding then," she deadpans back at him, but after a few weeks, she puts it on a chain and wears it as a necklace tucked under her shirt anyway. 

 

 

Sometimes the hours drag on, and something goes wrong with a build, and red tape fucks things up, and it's in those moments when they both  _really_ feel the sting of losing Scottie - another brain, another pair of hands, another voice. Which is probably why an offer actually comes in. They could afford another person on deck, someone new to replace Scottie's position in the build team. Jamie asks them about it while working on a build one afternoon, and Tory's busy drilling holes into some planks so he doesn't look up at him, but he feels something settle in the pit of his stomach. It's cold and hard and uncomfortable, the thought of a  _new_ build team. He can't deny it would probably be a great help. Rationally, he  _knows_ that. It just...

He looks up, and Kari does that at the same time. Their eyes meet, and he sees something in her expression, something he recognises in his own. There's a beat of silence before she raises her safety goggles and smiles up at Jamie. "I think we're good."

He feels a swoop of relief that steals the breath from his lungs. So they're still on the same page. He's glad for it. 

 

 

They go to work, make things, take them apart, blow them up, talk into the camera, prank each other, share their food, go out for drinks, laugh about stupid shit, spend their time together, whatever. 

Nothing changes - things change, sure, and the world changes around them, but -

nothing changes. 

 

 

They throw Kari a surprise birthday celebration for her 34th. She walks into the shop to find it dark and is confused for all of two seconds before the lights get flipped on and she becomes the star of the day. It's awesome. They actually incorporate it into an episode and investigate some myths that concern typical birthday stuff, candles and noisemakers and all that crap. The office has a great day, and Tory ends up eating two slices of cake over the blueprints with Kari by his side. They're talking about the day and everything is good and then Tory cracks a joke that has Kari throwing her head back and laughing, and his eye catches on nothing.

Literally nothing. Kari's not wearing her necklace.

Kari's not wearing her wedding ring.

And there's absolutely  _no_ reason for him to be thrown in such a loop by that, but he just stops in the middle of his sentence, unable to continue. He hasn't known Kari to take off her wedding ring in, like, two entire years. Why isn't she wearing it?

There's so much going through his head that it takes him a while to realise Kari's snapping her fingers in front of his face, looking concerned. "Tory. You okay? Why did you just zone out?"

"I'm fine," Tory answers automatically, and tries to ignore the weird tingling feeling in his chest.

 

 

She doesn't come in for a week after that and he just  _knows._

He works on builds with assorted Mythterns while she's gone, hams up for the camera, does reckless crap that leaves him wincing and bandaging his knuckles one night at home. What he doesn't do is call Kari, or text, or try any way to contact her. He gets this strange guilty sensation about that - like he  _should_ be trying to get in touch with her, and that's right out of nowhere and makes no sense whatsoever. 

He just waits for her to come back - which she does. She walks back in a week later with bloodshot eyes and just gets back to work like nothing's happened. There's this aura about her that makes everyone avoid her, instinctively, like she's a ticking time bomb or a porcelain vase, too fragile to touch lest she shatter. 

Tory's the only one who says  _fuck that,_ and walks right up to her while she's cutting up some styrofoam and sits down by her. "Kari - "

"Don't," she snaps it out, sharp and harsh. "Just...  _don't,_ okay, Tory? I  _really_ don't want to talk about it. Just sit by me and don't talk and just - work, I don't know. Please."

He knows her. He has always known her, because it comes with the territory, two of them against the builds, against the deadlines, against the world. Tory grabs a model train he's been fixing together for another myth, sits down beside her, and works. 

 

 

Things go back to normal, for her, after a while, and Tory stops hearing muffled crying every time he's near the bathroom.

What he  _does_ start hearing is Scottie's words echoing in his ears, called back from what seems like ages ago, and it's so traitorous, the way his heart just clenches when he hears Kari finally start being able to laugh again. 

He knows what he said - that he wasn't in love, but it was easy. The second part hasn't changed - only he's beginning to doubt the first.

 

 

Nothing changes for Kari. She has to adjust to being single again, putting the divorce behind her, but other than that, everything is fine.

And what  _really_ scares Tory is that nothing changes for him either. The world doesn't shift on its axis or fall apart just because he suddenly realises he's in love with Kari. It's as if it's always been there, as if he's always somehow known, and maybe, just maybe, that's because he has. 

He doesn't tell her. Part of it is because he doesn't want to be a dick - after a divorce, and everything, and in no universe would it not be a colossally stupid decision. And of course, part of it is because he's absolutely fucking terrified. 

Nothing changes, and everything does, all at once. 

 

 

Three months later, they're rushing through their food together before the light dies and filming gets screwed for the day, and out of nowhere Kari just starts talking. "Tory. Thanks for being there, when... you know. I never thanked you for it, but I wanted to. For not pushing. For just staying with me. I needed it."

There's this softness to her expression and real gratitude, and Tory just can't help but smile back. The late afternoon sunlight is illuminating her through the windows of the little shack they're sitting in and it casts all these shadows and she looks so beautiful, like this, just being. "You're my best friend," he responds, because she is, and maybe that's what they both need to hear. Kari grins at him, dumps her extra lo mein into his takeaway box, then skips outside, calling over her shoulder. "Hurry up or you're going to miss the sunset!"

Tory smiles after her, watches her go, lets her laughter ring in his ears. This is perfect, he realises. If this is all he ever gets, it is so much more than enough. 

 _This is what I want,_ he thinks as he shovels the rest of his food into his mouth and goes outside to join Kari.  _Never change._

 

 

Until.

All is going good, and then on one afternoon Kari's uncharacteristically quiet in a way Tory doesn't remember her having been since  _then,_ and as they pack up to go home at night, she turns to him and sighs. "Let's go out for drinks."

He can't say no to her, so they end up at the same bar they threw the farewell party. Kari drinks slow, pensively, and it's a couple beers later that she finally starts talking. "I got married today two years ago."

Oh,  _shit._ Now her behaviour makes sense. Tory's at a loss for words, but Kari just looks over at him and smiles. "You don't need to say anything. Being here with me is enough."

Tory looks back at her and thinks he knows what she means. "Do you want to talk about it?"

And she does, so she talks, and he listens. She talks about how she rushed into the marriage because she desperately wanted some sort of stability and security, and it felt like it was expected of her, and how it was never what she thought it would be, and how she felt like she was living a lie after a while, and how she always felt like she was missing  _something,_ but she just never knew what. 

The bar closes at 1AM, and Tory helps Kari onto her feet and out of the bar. "I'm going to drive you home, okay?"

Kari accedes with a nod, and drops off the moment she's in Tory's passenger seat. She doesn't wake up until they reach her house, and Tory carefully gets her up the steps and safely into her living room. 

"You can make it to bed without choking on your own vomit, yeah?" He asks lightheartedly, and Kari laughs. "Yeah, 'm good. Thanks for driving me."

So she's fine, his job is done, and Tory's just let himself out and is walking down the driveway back to his car when he hears the door open behind him and Kari call out. "Tory."

He turns to see her, silhouetted in the light. "Yeah?"

"I lied," she says, quiet. "I know what I was missing."

In the stillness of the night, it reverberates. "He never made me feel like I was home."

She falls silent, but it sounds unfinished, and Tory waits for Kari to finish. Waits for her to say it.

"You make me feel like I'm home."

He can hear his heart pounding, he can feel his breath catch, but it's also the middle of the night and Kari's drunk off her feet, so he just walks back up and places a hand on the door. "You should sleep. We can talk tomorrow."

Kari grins, slow and tipsy. "G'night."

"Good night," Tory answers, and leaves before he can do anything stupid.

 

 

They don't have work the next day, or on Sunday, so it's another two days before he finally sees her again. Tory comes in early to take apart an engine, and Kari walks in an hour later looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and confident. Without hesitation she walks up to him, just removes his earplugs. "I meant what I said on Friday."

He stares dumbly up at her, because he's not sure what this means, and what it could be. She answers that for him by leaning down and kissing him, insistent and sure and Tory feels relief flood through him. 

He gets it. 

He's home. 

"I can't believe it took me this long to see it," Kari says, when she finally leans back to breathe. "How long  _have_ we been together, actually? I feel like someone should have told me."

Tory laughs. It's instinctive, fuelled by sheer joy. "Scottie told me I was in love with you on the night she left. It was a revelation I didn't believe until a while ago."

"Smart of her. We should send her a gift basket," she comments, and he grins at the thought of Scottie's likely reaction. "Later," he agrees, and pulls her in close for another kiss.

"Later," Kari repeats softly, and kisses him back. 


End file.
